A ride on the back of a Minotaur
Would you like to ride on the back of the Minotaur, 14 metres high, along the legendary Runway of Giants?
Then head for the Hall of La Machine: it’s here that Asterion the Minotaur has set up home, in a spectacular world created by François Delaroziere and his team of machine operators.
Asterion the Minotaur
He awaits you on the runway, motionless and majestic. On his back, a two-storey Greek temple is ready to welcome you for a ride along the Montaudran runway. This is a historic runway, since in another era it witnessed the take-off of Latécoère and Aéropostale pilots such as Jean Mermoz, Henri Guillaumet and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The ride gives you a chance to get up close and scrutinise every detail of the machine in motion: the beast waking up, the intricate carving of the wood, the clanking of the mechanical parts, the smoke coming out of the nostrils… The machinists are at the controls, answering all your questions to awaken that sense of wonder in young and old alike.
Ariadne, the spider
The machines of the Hall
She often wanders along the runway, not far from Asterion. During your visit to the Hall of La Machine, you’ll also discover the spider, which played the role of Ariadne in the show The Guardian of the Temple. The creature has moving eyes, spits water and can reach heights of up to twenty metres! If this kind of creature makes you nervous on a day-to-day basis, all you’ll remember here is the grace of its articulated body and its eight legs, which slowly unfold before setting itself in motion.
Inside the Hall you enter the world of La Machine, a company founded and directed by François Delaroziere. It has created a stable of mechanical devices to show the public how these machines are conceived and created, to tell the story of how this gigantic, phantasmagorical universe of wood and metal came to life and took shape before performing in the streets all over the world…
Until 9 june
The return of Lilith
Lilith, the Guardian of Darkness, wakes up several times a day. You can admire her grace and her icy gaze, and marvel at the sculpted details and carved.
Lilith is a machine designed for the Hellfest metal music festival. After its exhibition in Toulouse, it will be in permanent residence at the festival site in Clisson, near Nantes.
La Halle de la Machine
3 Avenue de l’Aérodrome de Montaudran, 31400 Toulouse.
Access: Bus Linéo 8, stop Gonin – Bus 80 or 27, stop Latécoère – Metro Line B, stop Rangueil + bus ligne 23 stop Piste des Géants.
By bike: nearest VélÔToulouse stations n°239 and 267.
Stroll from the town centre along the Canal du Midi. The Halle de La Machine has been awarded “Accueil Vélo”.
